Today I finally got to the asian supermarket and carried back several kg of rice and a couple liters of soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. What Tsigereda said about missing food is pretty true -my mouth was watering even though the market wasn’t really much bigger than a baby Super 88 in Boston. I made sushi rice, chicken katsu, and spinach with mushrooms for dinner. And I had some green tea afterwards with a stroopkoekje (like the stroopwafel, except the syrup is sandwiched with cookies). Yum.

The day was more typically Delft-gray with the random shower. I took a few pictures of the road by the highway, a canal that had a lock (though perhaps there isn’t enough reference in the frame), and this strange mural that appeared on the side of my flat building’s garage.

I had some adjustments to make with some aspects of the flat, but my main concern now is how to get by with just a fridge and a gas stove top. (I actually discovered that there was no freezer after I had bought some frozen vegetables from the supermarket my first night. I was also lucky to have a box of matches on me, since the stove top doesn’t have ignition.)

I first panicked at the lack of a microwave, since Andy and I had gotten by without an oven during IAP, but I had no clue how to reheat food without one. In fact, I had to look up references like this, which I looked up only today and have yet to apply this recent knowledge.

So far I’ve been eating everything or dining on cold leftovers, so warm food has become this strange commodity (though the Dutch typically eat cold lunches). I am thinking of getting a toaster oven and an icebox, since living without a microwave might make me eat healthier, but any tips on surviving would be great. (Or the benefits of toaster oven v. normal oven.)

I do have to note that our flat does smell nice, since half of Tsigereda’s luggage was food and spices.

I arrived in the Netherlands on Thursday, August 21. Since then I have gone to a one week program (“summer school”) for international students and met people from around the world. I share a flat with an Ethiopian girl who is studying Computer Science, also at TU Delft. I am still getting settled into Delft, but buying a bike and a phone (albeit prepaid) makes things a lot easier.

I actually meet my faculty (Industrial Design Engineering) tomorrow. I will make note of more things, but so far little things that are different include dedicated bike paths and traffic lights, a distinct lack of helmets, an abundance of fried food with mysterious contents, one-way paths for supermarkets, and a bathroom mirror subconsciously placed for tall people.